In message <[log in to unmask]>,
[log in to unmask] writes
>A survey of Northern Ireland GP's quoted in this months BMA news Review
>states that one third of GP's has considered quitting General Practice, 29%
>feel morale is poor or very poor and 32% believe it would deteriorate
>further.  There's not going to be many people left to lead the primary care
>lead NHS at this rate.
>
> Do GP Uker's feel the same? Is there too much apathy to fill in a
>questionnaire that I can't be bothered to write anyway (i.e. I'll write it if
>you promise to fill it in, on second thoughts, don't bother)

Where is all this poor morale? Isn't a lot of it got up by the GP press?
Admittedly I could do with a 53% pay rise and a 53% cut in workload, but
I can't say I'm particularly miserable.

The problem is that the traditional and therapeutic passtime of having a
good moan has been blown up out of all proportion and is now (like
everything else) taken too seriously; "I moan, therefore I am unhappy
and stressed" is not necessarily a true statement.

Look at my afternoon today. Our locum's car broke down in an
insalubrious part of the practice, so I had to see her patients and the
extras in addition to my booked surgery while she waited for the AA, who
only took an hour and a half to arrive. Did I moan? Of course not, I
accepted the challenge with relish, grateful for the opportunity of
improving my rapid consulting skills. The reason why I might have
appeared a bit bad-tempered to some of the patients is because they had
been waiting for ages and made me feel like that because that's how they
were feeling. Also it's not nice, if you're a patient, to insist that
you are so ill that you must be fitted in, sit for hours in the waiting
room, suffering all the time, only to have a two minute consultation
with me and be advised to buy some paracetamol for your sore throat.

One woman wouldn't tell me what her symptoms were or how long she had
had them, only that she felt "very ill" (she was an extra too!). She
said that she "couldn't breathe" - when I asked what she meant by that -
did she have a tight chest? was she breathless? was her nose blocked she
couldn't say, except that whatever it was needed antibiotics. I examined
her throat - it was red. Did she have a sore throat? - well yes, but she
also thought "it" was going into her sinuses. Well, fellow gp-ukers, I
thought: "sod this, I'll call it sinusitis and give her the bloody
antibiotics just to get rid of her" (see how, even in this extremity, I
needed to maintain my standards!). I typed out a prescription for
Amoxycillin 250mg tds, at which point, before I even had a chance to
print it, she said: "those 250s are no good for me, I'll need the 500s".
Without a word, I typed Amoxycillin 500mg tds, printed the damned thing,
and handed it to her. She left, giving the strong impression that she
wasn't much impressed with my performance. Only after she had gone did I
notice that I had given her a prescription for both 250mg and 500mg
Amoxycillin! I hope she gets thrush.

There - that feels better,

Toby
--
Toby Lipman, 7 Collingwood Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne


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